I thought this tennis ball catching in a boxing glove record was going to be easy. I could easily trap more than 74 tennis balls between 2 gloves in one minute. But then I found out I was only allowed to use one gloved hand. That’s when things got more complicated.
I had to practice a lot more than I expected but for a record that has stood for 9 years, I guess that makes sense.
Tennis balls don’t want to be caught in boxing gloves. Every time they hit, they simply bounce out. There is only a very small window where a ball can land and be caught. I had to combine several skills including “soft hands” from the record for longest duration juggling on the backs of the hands since that required catching a ball without holding on to it. Then I had to have perfect accuracy to make sure the ball landed in the small hold that it wouldn’t immediately bounce out. Then I had to add in timing to squeeze at just the right time. That coupled with arm strength to open the glove up just a tiny bit nearly 100 times in one minute leaving my forearm on fire. And in the end we achieved 81 catches in 1 minute beating the existing record of 74 tennis balls caught in boxing gloves in one minute.